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Dear our esteemed audience,

It gives us great pleasure and pride to have reached six months since first broadcast of Oromia Media Network (OMN) hit the air waves of Oromia and beyond. In such a short a time so much has been accomplished in the face of many roadblocks to stumble upon not least with a government that is hell bent on silencing our voice.

We began with few minutes of news production every other day in the first couple of weeks and today we have programs on a daily basis. We presented news, analysis and documented programs over this period. We have also started a once a week Amharic program. In collaboration with Oromo Sports Federation of North America, OSFNA, we were able to live broadcast some games and closing ceremony of the annual Oromo sports tournament. We presented interviews of Oromo in Diaspora of all walks of life, from young visionaries to veteran leaders and everyone in between. For convenience for our audience in the Diaspora we have begun an online radio service which our audience can access via phone. We have begun developing applications for smart phone users.

The news coverage and analysis of the Oromo Protest, the killings and gross human rights abuse against our people young and old followed by the massive global response from Oromo and friends worldwide were the highlight of our broadcasts. In addition to costs to the lives of Oromo in their backyards OMN was also a victim since our presence as the information hub of the Oromo within a short period of time also forced the government of Ethiopia to jam our satellite transmission not once but twice. While we were fighting to get back on air as we promised our people, some were trying their level best to defame and distract not only OMN but also the Oromo national struggle with series of factually incorrect but misleading videos and articles.

To utter disappointment of our detractors OMN will remain blossoming like a rose out of a thorny bush and shining like the sun out of a foggy sky. Try they may but with your help we have shown that we won’t remain silenced nor distracted. This determination does not come out of thin air but it is because we believed our people have our backs with their relentless support. There is a bond we created with you ever since you trusted us to deliver on our promise to bring you a strong and reliable media network. We also had full confidence that you would support our missions and we have been overwhelmed with your response.

We need to strengthen this mutual trust and bond and take it to the next step. We may have begun with one studio in Minnesota and a few employees but we plan to expand further to reach our goal. The satellite fee keeps recurring every month and there is no hiding that it is a huge amount. The management organ works voluntarily but we cannot sustain a strong institution with volunteer management. Therefore, slowly some key positions need to be filled by hiring full time resources to rectify many of the problems we have. Most importantly our programs need to improve both content wise and in quality by getting more resources in, both personnel and equipment. All of these require us to build our financial muscle and as ever we rely on your generosity. Isin malee maal qabnaree? Who else can we turn too?

If you have donated before we ask you to not only do so again but also register as a sustaining donor to keep us on air. If you are a sustaining donor we ask that you reach out to family and friends to do the same.